Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Introduction
Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen is a YA West African-inspired novel about Simidele “Simi”, a Mami Wata ( a West African mermaid), who is charged with ushering the souls of those who die in the sea to the land of the dead. Mami Wata have two rules they must follow: never save anyone and never fall in love or they will turn to sea foam. Simi breaks both rules when she saves Adekola “Kola”, the son of the chief of Oko, who was captured and thrown overboard by slavers.
In saving Kola, Simi upsets the cosmic balance and must go on a quest to find two rings to summon Olodumare, the supreme god of the orishas, and beg his forgiveness. If she fails, it’ll be the end of her and the other Mami Wata.
The Good
I loved the world building, the lush imagery and prose, and learning about the various orishas, the yumboes (fairies), and other creatures of West African cultures. I also liked that the romance between Simi and Kola wasn’t the focus, like in so many YA novels. It was also a joy to see Black characters in a fantasy setting, as it’s a genre not known for being diverse.
The Bad
That said, this book just wasn’t for me. Bowen spends so much time world building that the plot is an afterthought. It isn’t until sixty pages in that inciting incident takes places, then the plot lurches along at a glacial pace until the last fifty or so pages, when everything kicks into high gear.
The problem with this is two-fold. First readers are forced to slough through chapters were little to nothing happens, aside from all of Simi’s flashbacks. Second, by trying to cram half a book’s worth of plot into the last fifty pages, the writing is rushed, and the plot threads are resolved with Deus ex machina after Deus ex machina. This made me feel like the book wasted my time, when it didn’t bore me.
Moreover, all the characters lacked any depth. Simi spends most of the book being the cliché amnesiac, trying to recall her past life, that I never got a sense of her personality, if she had one. And the other characters don’t fare better. Kola is the stereotypical hot-headed young warrior, Bem is the strong silent type, Ayinka is the try-hard girl power warrior often seen in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and Issa is the annoying little brother type who wants to prove his manhood.
I felt nothing for theses characters, so when the bodies piled up at the end of the book, I just shrugged.
Another thing I took issue with was the inclusion of the African slave trade in this book. You mean to tell me Bowen created this fantasy world whole cloth, but couldn’t imagine a world in which Black people weren’t enslaved by Europeans?
Come on!
The Verdict
Overall, I give Skin of the Sea a 2.0 out of 5. Check this out if you’re into West African-inspired YA, but rent it from your library instead of buying it. I might read the next book in the series when it comes out, but I’ll rent it from my local library.